Aromatherapist Athena (Kelly Chen) has been down in the dumps since her SDU boyfriend Andrew died. One night, as she submerses herself in a bath of tears and oils, she hears a crash out on the rooftop patio. Heading out to investigate, she finds an Angel has fallen through the canopy and has broken a wing. Suitably named Angel (Takeshi Kaneshiro), the visitor needs time to heal his plumage before the gates to heaven are open again for him to return.
For the coming days Athena lets Angel stay at her flat. Soon he's getting into some earthbound action with her neighbour Chow Chow (pronounced tenderly and played to the hilt by Eason Chan), develops a thing for shoes, and all along helps guide Athena to resolve her loss and move back to love.
Riley Ip works off this simple premise to envelop Lavender's viewers with his positive little message. The script to accompany is clean, fun and rides full-steam with minimal core players. And the risk of being too overbearing seems successfully avoided, giving rise to a gentle urban romantic fantasy charm. While the leads may not be particularly moving I feel little need to detail characters too much in this review. After all, any film with an angel or dancing footwear is hardly realist to begin with.
Like UFO/Golden Harvest's And I Hate You So earlier this year, the yuppie "SoHo" area of Hong Kong's lower Mid-Levels features prominently in this film -- all but one scene in Lavender's locally-set portion is filmed there. The area is used nicely with the Mid-Levels escalator appearing accurately as the urban circulation spine it has become, even if the people shown dotted along its path -- buskers, activists and balloon-selling clowns -- are flights of fancy on the filmmakers' part. Production standards are on par with the slick And I Hate You So, with no scene (whether in Hong Kong or Europe, interior or exterior) looking anything less than appealing.
The cast is similarly attractive with fans of Takeshi Kaneshiro in for a particular treat in this one, as the camera takes to him almost lovingly. Poses abound as he plays it naive, lurks about the apartment, gets a massage oil rub-down and even pulls a striptease. Kelly Chen is also attractive, with the same ditzy leaning of her And I Hate You So role, minus the exaggeration and slimy nemesis of the former. Eason Chan is lively as the neighbour, though his raving homosexual getup and demeanour makes it so hard to sort the serious from the flamboyant. Cheng Pei-pei has a pleasing role, playing an aromatherapy student seeking the scent of her youth. And Tsang Tsou-choi shows up again though I unfortunately found his cameo appearance a little ill-spirited and a poor use of this very distinctive old man.